Brown Anniversary Panel Ends Commemoration of Case

The Brown v. Board of Education 50th Anniversary Commission finished its two years of work with a final meeting Nov. 8 at Howard University in Washington.

Established by Congress in 2001, the commission planned activities marking the 50thanniversary this year of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown decision, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools.

At their final meeting, commission members took questions from college and K-12 students, and Deputy Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok thanked them for their service.

The panel’s activities included support for numerous anniversary events and participation in the May opening of a museum in Topeka, Kan., that commemorates the four separate lawsuits that led to the Brown decision and a fifth companion case involving the District of Columbia, Bolling v. Sharpe. ("Topeka Museum Captures Brown Legacy," April 7, 2004.)

Members of the commission included some original plaintiffs and activists in the five cases, which were filed in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Kansas, South Carolina, and Virginia. Some commission members have pointed out that much segregation remains in the nation’s schools and between neighborhoods and school districts.